'NATURE 



\May 5, 1881 



author draws on a wide field of knowledge. What is most 

 needed in such a manual is that it should be clear, inter- 

 esting, suggestive, and not overladen with such details as 

 clog the memory while they make no permanent impres- 

 sion on the mind. In the present work the statistical 

 form is avoided, and the dr\- bones of geography are 

 clothed with such information as gives them life and 

 colour. The vegetation and products of the different 

 countries, their inhabitants and history, are all noticed in 

 connection with the configuration of the ground. Thus of 

 Italy we are told that, " besides the oak forests which 

 covered the lower slopes, and the beeches and firs which 

 covered the higher parts of the mountains up to 5000 feet, 

 and far more densely in ancient times than now, a large 

 part of the mountain region, especially of the Apennines, 

 owing to the steep and rocky character of the ground, 

 remains unsuited for any other purpose but cattle-feeding, 

 and this in the higher regions is confined, as in the Alps, 

 to the summer months. A regular interchange of cattle 

 and sheep according to the seasons, such as is now usual, 

 already went on in antiquity, as, for instance, between 

 Samnium and Apulia." So too, when the volcanic system 

 of Italy is mentioned, we are told that " the lava flowing 

 from these volcanoes afforded in old Roman times, as it 

 does still, the hardest material for binding together the 

 great military roads {silcx^, while the conglomerate of 

 tufa, consisting of the lighter masses thrown down, which 

 was spread over the plain, was the commonest material 

 for building, and its weather-worn surface made the most 

 fertile soil for tillage." In a similar geological sketch of 

 Greece, the various centres of volcanic action are noticed, 

 and the metals which are found in different parts of the 

 country. In respect of the history and politics of the 

 several districts a large amount of useful information is 

 brought together. For instance, we find a clear statement 

 of the names by which the ancient Greeks were known at 

 different times and by difterent peoples, and the history 

 of the name Italia is discussed in the same manner. Nor 

 are outlying nations neglected. Under the headings 

 "The Scythians" and "The Sarmatae '' we get the 

 results of a large amount of research and discussion, and 

 the Carthaginian province in Sicily is duly noticed. 

 Philology again, which is now no unimportant handmaid 

 of geography, is made to add its contribution of informa- 

 tion ; as when we are told that the names Asia and 

 Europe "are derived from the age and irib of the lately- 

 deciphered Assyrian monuments, meaning east and west, 

 and answering to the Homeric expression Trpos ^m jjcXiovre 

 and TTpos fot^oi', to the later Greek names of countries, 

 'AraroXj; and 'Ecr-n-epla, to the modern Orunf and Occident 

 (borrowed from the Latin), or to the Italian Levante and 

 Ponente." Sometimes a name is connected with the 

 features of the ground, as where the Jordan, with its steep 

 descent down a deep valley, is explained to mean " the 

 down-flowing " ; or where Zancle is said to be called " the 

 Sickle" from "the form of the tongue of land which 

 incloses the natural harbour." So, too, the student is 

 incited to further research when he learns that Mount 

 Atabyrion in Rhodes bears in reality the same name as 

 Mount Tabor, and that other Greek names have un- 

 doubtedly Semitic appellations ; and his appetite for 

 history is whetted by discovering that Cappadocia is the 

 Old Persian Katpatuka, and that Marsala is the mediseval 

 Arabian name for Lilybaeum. Numerous points like 

 these are illustrated by geography, and M. Kiepert gives 

 his readers the full benefit of them. But this is not to the 

 neglect of the more substantial part of the subject, which 

 is amply and clearly e.xpounded. H. F. Tozer 



Lehrbuch der organischen qualitativen Analyse. Von Dr. 



Chr. Th. Barfoed. Dritte Lieferung. (Kopenhagen : 



Andr. Ferd. Host und Sohn, 18S1.) 

 Dr. Barfoed's work on organic qualitative analysis is 

 completed by the issue of the present part. The author 



is to be congratulated on producing so valuable a book of 

 reference for the laboratory worker. The present part 

 contains a full account of the tests for the commoner 

 alkaloids, and for a few of the more fully examined vege- 

 table colouring matters. A general method for the exa- 

 mination of organic substances, whether free from, or 

 mixed with, inorganic compounds, is also given. This 

 general plan is not however arranged in cut-and-dry 

 tabular form, but is rather a guide which in the hands of 

 the experienced student will prove of much value. We 

 can but repeat what we said in noticing the first part of 

 this book, that every student who is desirous of obtaining 

 a real knowledge of qualitative organic analysis, ought to 

 possess Dr. Barfoed's work. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



\The Editor does not iiold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by /lis correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, 

 or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. 

 No notice is taiien of anonymous communications. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters 

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 that it is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even 

 of communications containing interesting and novel facts.\ 



Hot Ice 



That the experiments of Dr. Cariielley on hot ice have 

 excited much interest is not to be wondered at. His statement, 

 however, that ice could be raised to a temperature of 180° with- 

 out melting was so amazing that many a one could not accept it 

 without repeating the experiments. Soon after the first short 

 notice of Dr. Carnelley appeared in Nature we took up the 

 matter, but as the method used by Dr. Carnelley seemed to us 

 to be Fomewhat troublesome, we made use of quite a different 

 method. In the axis of a glass tube ab, 16 mm. in diameter, 

 and 56 cm. in length was fixed a thermometer t by means of 

 two strips ss of elastic brass sheet. One of tlie ends of the tube 

 was 22 mm. in diameter, while the other end had the shape of a 

 bulb, and was drawn out in a narrow tube, 

 a b, about 50 cm. in length. The tube was 

 placed in an inclined position with the end 

 /' in a glass filled with water that was kept 

 boiling. The bottom of the glass was 

 covered with a layer of mercury. Next the 

 tube was heated by a Bunsen burner ; a 

 part of the air was driven out, and, after 

 retiring the burner, the tube was partly 

 filled with the tioiling water of the glass. 

 The water in the tube was then boiled, a 

 still greater part of the air escaped, and by 

 removing the burner the tube filled itself 

 nearly entirely. The heating and cooling 

 were repeated three or four times, and in 

 this manner the tube could be filled with 

 the boiling water, not a single air-bubble 

 being left. The end b of the narrow tube 

 was now dipped in the mercury, and by healing the tube so 

 much of the water was driven out that the remainder filled the 

 enlarged part A for three-fourths. The tube being now 

 slowly cooled, the mercm-y rose in the tube ab, and it was 

 very easy to seal the tube at a with the blowpipe. The water 

 in A was now frozen, and by gently warming with the hand 

 the ice-cylinder was loosened from the tube ; by inverting the 

 tube the molten ice was brought into the bulb E, where it was 

 fixed by freezing. This part of the process presents some diffi- 

 culty. When the heating by the hand was not stopped in time, 

 too much of the ice was converted into water. However, by 

 placing the bulb n in a freezing mixture of snow and salt the 

 melting can be almost instantly arrested. The bulb of the 

 thermometer being in this way surrounded with an ice cylinder 

 12 mm. in diameter, the bulb B had only to be placed in the 

 freezing mixture to have the apparatus ready for the appliance 

 of heat. The results of our experiments confirm those of Dr. 

 Carnelley, inasmuch as the ice did not melt, notwithstanding the 

 heating of the tube at A was in one instance so strong that 

 the glass was softened and gave way to the external pressure of 

 the air. They differ, however, as regards the temperature of the 

 ice, which remained generally at - 7°. By very strong heating 



